Seventeen
by Ioannes1547
Summary: Seventeen awakens all alone in an unknown place just revived by the Dragon Balls. He'll must learn to live seeing himself like someone without any trace of humanity, and ignoring that what the future holds for him is greater than he thinks he deserves. (Translation of the successful and completed fanfic in Spanish, "Diecisiete")
1. Awakened

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter I: Awakened

* * *

 **..::::..**

He was confused, disoriented, in the grips of a permanent state of alarm when he opened his eyes. The last thing he could remember (and not in a very accurate way) was to be absorbed by Cell.

He looked at the gorgeous nature surrounding him. Birds, squirrels, bugs…

There was no trace of Cell.

And no trace of Eighteen nor Sixteen as well.

He got up from the floor and began to roam around. It was only later when he assumed that the Cell thing was all over and that the "grasshopper" had somehow ejected him.

But, what had happened exactly?

He wandered in the forest in a blank state with blocked memories and finally he reached the shore of a big lake surrounded by tall mountains. The clean and blue sky was reflected in the water like in a mirror. It was truly a site worth to look at and enjoy if only his mind was in a better conditions, but he couldn't think beyond his own need of finding his bearings and seek for his sister.

A herd of elks was drinking water near there. He looked at them but they didn't detect him, of course, they couldn't.

But when he took flight the elks fled toward the wilderness. Seventeen stood still in the air and peered into the forest's vastness. He couldn't even see the end of it, and there were no villages, nor roads and no sign of human life anywhere.

He narrowed his expressionless eyes at thought of how hard will be finding Eighteen when he didn't even know where he was. It was pointless to fly blindly to nowhere. So, Seventeen flew low and slowly over the mountains, over the whole large woods of pines and firs, and over the lake's complete perimeter, until finally he found a sign board and he landed besides it.

It was an old and gigantic forest map with several points of interest marked on it, and there was even a red circle with a short text besides it: 'YOU ARE HERE'

"Here where?" he murmured.

Seventeen eagerly searched through the map for useful evidences to place himself within the globe. But that info remained near the board edges and they had degradated and erased over time. And he finally gave up.

He then continued flying and looking for other signages or even the end of the forest itself (It was huge).

And he began to become bored.

But half an hour later he saw a truck driving slowly through a rough forest path. Seventeen landed in the wilderness, near the road, thinking about stealing that truck and keep his seeking by driving through the F-roads… It would be more fun this way, for sure.

He showed a wicked smile when he came out his spot to meet the truck. The driver braked sharply at the sight of Seventeen in a place where there wasn't anybody seconds before, and he threw himself out of the truck and began to hurl insults at him.

"Do you want to be killed? Get outta here!"

Seventeen approached him like nothing ever happened and stopped only a few inches from the man.

"What is this forest? Where are we?" Seventeen asked, without losing details of the car. It was a cool pick-up truck. He liked it a lot.

"What? Don't you know where you are?" the driver asked.

"No."

"Then, how did you get in here?"

"I woke up here."

"You what? Are you drunk?" the man asked. The boy's answers were not the ones of a sane person. "Someone threw you out of a moving car? We are surrounded by a 800 square-mile forest! You can't have appeared from nowhere, you know?" The man was gradually losing its patience by seeing Seventeen's calm attitude and listening his weird words. This boy was obviosly making fun of him and he hadn't got time for that shit." Ok, now listen, kid: get out of my way or I'll squash you like a worm," the driver said before turning around and walking towards the car.

'Kid'. The android squinted at the man and, before he could arrive to the cabin's safety, Seventeen grabbed his arm and twisted it.

The poor truck's driver left out a cry and fell to the ground.

"Mother fucker!" he mumbled.

"Be careful what you say. You could lose the other arm," Seventeen said with a velvet voice.

The man obeyed and shut his mouth. He didn't know what was more fightening about him: his voice, those icy eyes or that extremely calm attitude.

Suddenly, something called Seventeen's attention from where he was standing: there was a large covered thing in the cargo box. Seventeen was intrigued by it and he walked there. This was the chance for the driver to slowly stand up and reach out to grab something from inside the cabin.

By then Seventeen had already discovered the "thing". It was the corpse of a young elk, smaller than the ones he had seen in the shore. This man was a poacher.

Seventeen took a glimpse of him just before the poacher shot him in the head with a rifle. The ricocheted bullet became embedded on a tree near the side of the road, and the shocked man dropped the rifle. Seventeen then turned his head in a slowly and frightening motion and grabbed him by his jacket lapels.

"There is no fun in killing you now," he roared. The poacher turned white and lost his voice. And then, Seventeen cracked a wicked smile and said, "I have a better idea. Let's go for a ride."

He roughly threw the man to the passenger seat inside the cabin and sat behind the wheel. And then he smiled again while taking it with both hands. He knew it, it was a pretty good car. Seventeen would finally have the chance of driving through the F-roads.

The poacher shrank back in fear when the android reached to the glove compartment placed in front of the passenger seat. And when he opened it some bullets fall down to the cabin's floor, but there was a detailed map of the forest as well. Royal Nature Park was its name.

He didn't know what was exactly his position in that map but it would be fun finding his bearings while driving through the roads.

He looked at the poacher with a crooked smile and said, "I like your jacket."

And then, he started the car.

 **..::::..**

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_

 _This fanfic was written originally in Spanish and its publication is completed on that language. Due to the large amount of requests about translating it into English, and given the greater number of reads it has in Spanish I decided to translate it. Although I'll do the translations without a beta reader, and this will probably lend me to spend a long time checking every chapter, but I've spent two months looking for a beta reader and people didn't even respond my requests. I respect and understand it, they believe that I'm asking for a translator and not a simple beta. So, in the end, I'll do it by myself._

 _About the story: #17's personality moves between the attitude of a rebel and insolent brat who thinks only about having fun and the one of a killer with a sociopathic behavior in Dragon Ball Z, so I think It is all about finding the right balance between them. But this is a very difficult task! XD_

 _I hope you liked this first chapter. It will take me a week, more or less, to finish a good translation of each one, so I pray for patience and, by the time, let me know your impressions about it (story plot, spelling or grammar mistakes... anything)_

 _As always, thanks for reading!_

* * *

 _Dragon Ball_ © Akira Toriyama


	2. A vacant post

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men ."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter II: A vacant post

* * *

 **..::::..**

The Rangers Headquarters were located in a wooden building with gabled roofs, in the end of the main and only road to the forest reserve area.

Inside of it, life passed by slowly and easy, and it couldn't be another way to since there were no shops, no people and even no phone coverage at all. There only was a little petrol station, an old tavern with the only TV of the park where the rangers usually gathered around to have some fun, and the Head Office itself where a radio station kept contact with the rangers in the fixed checkpoints.

Only one sixth of the rangers worked in the Head Office, the rest were assigned to 12-hour shifts in the surveillance posts inside the Park. But some of those posts were so far away from the main road that the officers assigned to them remained there during a week or so until the shifts change.

The only contact with the outside world the rangers had was through the Head Office, the tavern and the brief communication kept between them all via walkie-talkie.

That morning was a peaceful one with a wonderful autumn climate. There were only two or three regular customers in the tavern and the owner himself who was working behind the bar. Someone inserted a coin into the jukebox and the air was filled with a country melody.

There was no reaction at all to that change in the atmosphere; only who had paid for the song stamped his feet at the music rhythm.

"Does anybody know something about the baby elks? How many have been lost already?" the pub owner asked while cleaning the bar with a no so clean wipe.

"We are lacking in personnel to guard this area. The lake spot is abandoned since Jin's retirement," one of the customers quietly replied while looking at his crossword puzzle.

"Still? Mnhh… Bad thing. Lots of tourists come here to see those baby elks, especially during summer," the owner said. He proceed to wipe some glasses then, lost in thought, with the same dirty cloth from before.

"To hell with the tourists! Nobody is willing to work in such isolated place and live in a shanty house in the middle of nowhere!" who picked the jukebox song said.

"But my cash register is crying, Flynn! Nobody comes here if not for some baby elk sighting! And next year it'll be worse! Poachers will do strike gold if nobody stops them! And, you know? This kind of news spreads like wildfire—"

"Then to hell with the poachers and with your crying cash register too!" the other man screamed.

Suddenly, the bar's door burst open and a young officer barged into, ending the discussion.

"There's a car coming straight here over the track! The Chief wants all of us armed and ready!" the boy said really upset.

The complaining officer, lazily stood up from his chair and pulled his pants up.

"The Chief is going overboard as always. What's the fuss about? A lonely car?"

The young officer swallowed hard and said, "You MUST come and see this."

* * *

 **…**

* * *

"Yeah! We found a waypoint. Are you happy?"

Seventeen smiled widely and pointed to a place in the map called "Rangers Headquarters". Teasing the poacher was something he couldn't get tired of. The man remained silent in the passenger seat and dared not to blink. He didn't even complain when the car, roughly driven by Seventeen, passed through some complicated path and his shoulder luxation made him nearly let out a scream.

They were riding through tracks and F-roads for almost the last three hours, until the beginning of a main road near to a wooden building with a signboard: 'Royal Nature Park Rangers. Head Office'.

In that very moment a lot of armed people wearing orange armbands came out in droves from inside the building and rounded up the car. Hitting them all was too tempting for the android, but he restrained himself; he did not want to end up with the full so soon. And, besides that, Seventeen was curious about all that uproar, so he decided to wait and see.

"Get out of the car!" one of the rangers cried out.

Seventeen looked at them with a straight face.

"Are they friends of yours?" he asked out of curiosity. His velvet voice sounded threatening.

But the man denied it. He closed his eyes tightly and said, "Oh, finally!"

He then opened the car's door and fell to the ground while whimpering, "I never expected being grateful of bumping into you, guys!" He stumbled towards the rangers and begged, "Help me, please! That bastard had assaulted and kidnapped me!".

The cargo box cover had fled out of its place along the way and the elk's corpse was no more covered, and this was a good reason for the rangers to held Seventeen, the current driver, on gunpoint.

"Stop the engine and get out of the car NOW!"

The android raised a brow and laughed. What a bunch of pathetic idiots they were, trying to arrest the wrong criminal!

He obeyed though, amused. Seventeen stopped the car and got out of it, and then the poacher screamed, "Give my keys back, you bastard!"

The confused rangers looked around, and Seventeen roared with laughter.

"You've just betrayed yourself, butthead," he murmured.

"Who does the damn car belong to?" a nearly out of patience ranger with a different shoulder mark asked then.

"I-it is mine… But, Mr. officer, he kidnapped me!"

The rangers looked at Seventeen, who was grinning happily, hands raised and disarmed.

"That riffle is not mine, but the thing over there surely was killed by one of its bullets."

Everything seemed clear then and the rangers didn't wait any longer to arrest the poacher and read him his rights, and the official who seemed the Chief walked towards Seventeen to apologize.

"There was some mistake earlier I think… Sorry about that. We thought it was a kidnapping case," he shrugged. "But he is a poacher, and that makes a huge difference… Or rather, that turns everything upside down. Did you manage to restrain him by yourself?

"Kind of."

"Impressive! How did you do that? He was armed with a rifle!" the Chief asked.

"Luck of the draw", Seventeen replied.

The poacher yelled his guts out when someone grabbed his arm to lead him to a temporary detention cell, and screamed nonsense words about bullets that ricocheted on Seventeen's head.

"Someone, give him a sedative, for God's sake!" the Chief howled. "And bring me some for me too! What a headache… You smoke?" he asked while offering Seventeen his own packet of cigarettes. The android simply shook his head and the ranger anxiously lit one of them up. "I would bet that asshole is one of this season's baby elk killers. Come on, boy! I have to take you statement."

Without waiting for a response from Seventeen, the Chief walked briskly to the Head Office building. The android followed him several steps behind. He had no intention to cooperate with this people, but maybe he could find some useful information inside that hut, or rather a map. He had to keep looking for Eighteen and Sixteen, after all.

The place had both walls and ceiling cracked and rickety windows. There wasn't much movement in there, only two rangers besides Seventeen and the Chief, and one of them was talking through the radio, maybe contacting the police.

"Sit down, please," the Chief said while pointing to a nearby chair. His desk was filled with papers and stuff, and he rushed to out the ashtray into the dustbin. "You wanna coffee?" he mumbled. Seventeen didn't reply and the Chief shrugged before took a drag on his cigarette. "What's your name, boy?" he asked while preparing a standard form.

The android gave the walls and desks a complete going-over before answering the question _, "_ Seventeen."

No, there was no map in there.

"Your name, not your age," the Chief explained.

"Seventeen," the android repeated.

The Chief watched him in disbelief for a few seconds a took another drag.

"Seventeen? What kinda name is that?"

The android didn't reply. He simply stared intently at him until the Chief sighed and wrote something into the form.

In the end, it took very little time for the Rangers Chief to take Seventeen's statement due to the android's short and vague answers.

"You know what?" the Chief asked while finishing the procedure. "I still don't get it. What the hell were you doing in such isolated place? You know, with no car, no water bottle…" He remained lost in thoughts for a moment and then he clicked his tongue and frowned. "What does it matter, anyway? You clearly are a skilled hiker, aren't you? You couldn't have been there any other way," said the Chief then, trying to explain by himself Seventeen's mystery. "The Rangers Department would need some adventurous people like you; there is less and less vocation for the job…"

"I want a map," Seventeen said almost in an automated voice.

"What? Eh… Sure. Jimmy, bring a forest map over here."

The young boy who warned the people at the bar, brought the requested map up to the Chief, and gave Seventeen a suspicious glance.

The android looked briefly at the map and threw it on the table.

"I have this already. I want a bigger one."

"Eh… Ok, let's see…" the Chief stood up and looked for the requested thing in a metal bookshelf only to find an old world atlas. "Sorry," he apologised. "That's the only stuff we have here."

Seventeen browsed through it with narrowed eyes. The good news were that by looking for the forest name in the index he could finally locate it in the world map. But the bad news were that he was very, very far away from the place where he remembered Cell absorbed him, and this, besides he could not detect any ki, turned the search for his sister and Sixteen into something impossible.

He then breathed deeply and closed the book. He sat back in his chair, lost in thought.

The Rangers Chief, the radio operator and Jimmy stared quietly at the android, maybe waiting for some reaction from him. And suddenly, Seventeen stood up from his chair and started to leave the office.

"Where are you going?" the Chief asked.

He stopped by the doorway. Truth be told, he didn't know it. He has no place to go and he did not know what to do.

How pitiful…

He looked at the truck from the doorway. It was reallr fun to drive F-roads, they were so cracked that he had nearly dumped the car.

Yep. Driving was fun as hell.

He ignored the Chief's question and walked briefly towards the car willing to take it and leave. He didn't have a place to go nor what to do but this way he'd have a good time, at least. He'd think later what to do next.

They were taking the elk out of the cargo box, and Seventeen waited there.

"You can't drive it anymore," a voice said.

It was the Chief's, who had guessed what the android wanted to do and had followed him. Seventeen's icy eyes stared at him.

The last person who dared give him orders or forbid him from doing anything was Dr. Gero, and he died because of that. But, strangely, this time he didn't feel the need of killing the Chief. Something restraint Seventeen from attacking him. Maybe it was something about his talk or maybe on his stare, he didn't know what exactly was. But, instead of attack, he just asked, "Why not?"

"Because that's a seized car," the Chief explained, like an obvious fact. "And a tow truck will tow it to a car depot."

"What a waste…" Seventeen murmured.

"I know, right?" the Chief agreed. "This bastard had a great truck, no wonder he could arrive to that part of the Park. If poachers drive those things, how could elks find a place to hide in?

Seventeen didn't reply. He just stared blankly at the truck.

And the Chief, in turn, thought that this just appeared enigmatic boy was too young to be so lonely already.

"Where do you live, boy?"

"Nowhere."

"Are you some kind of a globetrotter?"

Seventeen looked at him.

"Yeah, something like that."

And then, while staring at him, the Chief had an idea. It for sure could be just madness, but the rangers lack of staff was really starting to be it as well.

"All right, I got a proposition for you, boy," the Chief said. He put out his cigarette and stood in front of Seventeen. "You don't have a place to go, it seems like you like nature and off-road driving, and I gather that you are unemployed. You fit perfectly with the vacant post we have. Do you want to join us?"

Seventeen was speechless. Never in his whole life had someone told him such a thing. Well, he didn't even remember anything of his previous life though.

He gave the Chief his make-anybody-to-pee-himself glare, but the man seemed immune to it; rather, he stared hopeful back at him.

He must be really desperate to offer a job to an apparently no trustworthy foreigner. But, in the end, Seventeen didn't have many chances at all. Of course he could always kill them all, steal the truck and drive happily through the forest.

But this was the easy way, and somehow this idea did not satisfy him. What after all that? He, for sure, will be bored soon or later.

He was homeless, he wasn't able to find Eighteen nor his buddy, Sixteen, and he didn't even know if they were alive or not. And besides, in the case he could find them what will they do for a living? Killing people? This would be a kind of way to fulfil Dr. Gero's plans. And hell no.

He didn't dislike nature, the idea of him spending his time surrounded by trees wasn't disgusting at all.

Yeah, he DID LOVE driving, especially off-road cars.

And lastly: no, he obviously didn't have a job.

"May I have my own car?" Seventeen asked then in a tiny voice.

The Chief smiled broadly.

"Of course! Jin's old junk is yours to enjoy! And the firebreak hut is empty if you'd like to have something similar a roof over your head. It'd need to be cleaned up and having an existing little roof leak repaired, though. And as a member of the rangers you'll handle a few weapons as well…" the Chief explained. Seventeen's smile become wider then and the ranger rushed to add, "... But you should pass some attitude tests before that."

Seventeen grinned while briefly glancing at the rifles and guns handled by the rangers, and thought, 'Completely pointless tests.'

He had a hunch that boredom would take a long time to appear if he decided to take part on that "madness". But, well, if it happened, he could always take the first chance: kill them all.

 **..::::..**

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_

 _In my vision of Seventeen becoming a Park Ranger he is somehow adopted by them, and he don't feel the need of killing, because it isn't funny anymore. And the kindness of the Chief is essential for his final decision to stay._

 _By the time being his only motivations to become a ranger will be: cars and weapons, and maybe enjoying some nature._

 _It will be a little time lapse in the next chapter, look forward to it, please!_

 _I hope the translation is ok for you, this time I really had a hard time with some parts even now I'm not satisfied with. I'm worried about it and hope it doesn't sound too odd. But I will happily accept any suggestions from you guys :)_

 _And thank you very much for reading!_

* * *

 _Dragon Ball_ © Akira Toriyama


	3. A strange guy

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter III: A strange guy

* * *

 **..::::..**

The forest night silence was never too deep. Life never completely slept and it filled every tree, bush or rainwater puddle.

Owls and its preys' cries could be heard over there as well as foxes sniffing among the bushes. Since a few days ago even some growl of a just awakened from hibernation bear echoed through the forest.

In the rickety front porch of the firebreak hut Seventeen was sitting back in a very old rocking chair, eyes closed and feet up the railing. He was the very same image of calmness.

Icy eyes opened with the first sunrise light. The rocking chair creaked when Seventeen stood up from it. He entered the hut and came out shortly after, hands busy with a rifle and a walkie-talkie. He wore an orange armband and a cowboy hat.

He started his old off-road car and checked the fuel gauge. It was nearly empty; he should go straight to the Headquarters' petrol station and fill up the tank.

Park Rangers assigned to fixed checkpoints had permission to own some extra metal fuel cans due to their long shifts and the long distances to drive in the middle of nowhere. They sometimes remained in isolation because of a storm, and having a fuel reserve was very useful when this happened.

Seventeen was one of those lonely rangers and not only his car fuel level was low, the cans he had in the shed were almost empty as well.

Thinking about it, Seventeen left the rifle on the car's overhead gun rack and went to the shed near the hut. He returned after a while with a pair of 40 litre metal fuel cans.

Obviously he didn't need that car at all, he simply could go patrol his forest area by flying, but it would be too easy that way. Driving a car was a really fun part of a ranger's life and he never knew what unexpected surprise would come in the next turn of the road; it could be anything: bears, wolfs, cliffs, cracked roads, poachers… It was exciting.

He filled the back seats with the big cans and started to drive straight to the Rangers Headquarters. There was a little snow here and there yet, but the harsh winter has almost gone.

Two hours later, Seventeen arrived to the Head Office. He stopped his car near a petrol pump, took out the gas cans from the backside, left them in the floor, and started to fill them.

He then breathed deeply and grinned while looking around. That morning was so freezing that there was nobody to annoy him. Seventeen had somehow replaced his usual restlessness with loneliness and calmness.

And he truly liked his new peaceful and lonely way of life.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

"Does anyone of you know something about Seventeen?" the Chief asked. He was having a cup of strong coffee while looking to some official paperwork.

"He's out there, Chief. He has just arrived a while ago."

The Chief looked up and found the four men in shift staring silently outside one of the office windows.

"He got out of his area again the other day," Jimmy murmured while keeping an eye on Seventeen. "Area limits are clearly defined, there is no way he could fail on that; he know well where his area's are: the lake, the firebreak, and the Three Sisters. Even so he enters other rangers areas and never warned them… I don't know what he has his walkie-talkie for."

"Who's the place he entered?" the radio operator asked.

"It was Booz's, and you know how seriously he takes things… Booz always gets mad and never knows how to deal with Seventeen. But this is not only Booz's problem."

"I know," the other man agreed. "Nobody knows how to talk to him. Someone called him 'the lake's weirdo' the other night in the tavern. He IS pretty weird."

Jimmy clicked his tongue and stood arms crossed willing to keep the chatter going.

"He hasn't even cleaned the hut up! Did you see the porch? It's going to fall apart any time… And he hasn't used not one of his days off. Not even his vacation!"

"Is he wearing the gun today?"

"No he's not," Jimmy replied shaking his head. "But I'll bet he has the Remington inside the car. He always carries it with him since he got the license."

"Guys, I was wondering if any of you have seen him buying groceries some time," a ranger wearing glasses finally chimed in, after having been listening from his desk until then.

"NE-VER," Jimmy replied. "Seems like he lives on air…"

"Enough! You, chatterbox!" the Chief roared through the office, and the conversation suddenly stopped. "He may be a strange guy but, who of all of you does not?" the Chief's question remained unanswered and the rangers who were gathered around the window quickly turned back to their workplaces. The Rangers Chief left his empty cup over the table, stood up and took his jacket from the chair before keeping scolding them. "But, either way, he IS the most effective man of the whole Rangers Department, and that's quite a good thing for all of you to keep in mind as well. He has arrested more criminals in the last year and a half than you all together, so you better shape yourselves up!" he screamed. The Chief opened the door then and turned back before leaving. "And if his new acquisition pisses you off, take the sniper tests as well and stop whimpering!"

He slammed the door shut and left the office still putting on his jacket, carrying a walkie-talkie and some papers in his hands. The weather was so freezing he could see his own breath.

Seventeen was already leaving the petrol pump in place when the Chief walked towards him. He had filled both metal gas cans as well as the car fuel tank.

"Boy, I don't get it," murmured the Rangers Chief when he saw Seventeen lifting the heavy cans and putting them in the backside. "How can you have such strength?"

Seventeen closed the back door and silently stared at him.

Yeah, there wasn't anybody as effective and hard-working as Seventeen, it was for sure. But his silences sometimes frightened even the Chief himself, and the man was well known by his nerves of steel. He had the feeling that Seventeen did things just for fun, not even for a pay. And his idea of fun wasn't the same of an average boy's. Jimmy was quite right and that bothered him but, truth be told, that boy had never spent a single zeni on beers at the tavern, for example.

"Do you remember the zoologist from Wicode*?" the Chief asked, putting aside his thoughts.

The android opened the front door of his car and nodded. That scientist suffered an accident while installing a new set of night cameras.

"He had quite a bad fall…" the android murmured. The man in question fell from a tall tree and broke his back. The Wicode people hadn't contacted with him for days so they warned the rangers. And Seventeen received orders to search for him; the man worked in Seventeen's area, after all. But finally the android found the poor man completely frozen near that tree.

"Yeah… You could say that. I still don't understand why he didn't use a safety harness," the Chief mumbled. "Anyway, a new researcher is coming to continue the work of that poor man and you must bring him to the Observatory. He'll live and work there from now on."

The Chief held out to him the papers he was holding and Seventeen dropped them in the passenger's seat no looking at them once. The old ranger sighed, he still wasn't used to that kind of disrespectful actions from him.

"There is a car in the Observatory's shelter for him to drive. You just have to give him this walkie-talkie so he can get in touch with you anytime… ¡Oh! And this map as well."

The android silently received the items from the Chief. It could be trouble for his beloved peaceful life if the new scientist bothered him too often. And he DID hate being bothered.

"Don't worry, Seventeen. People from Wicode have quite survival skills, so he won't bother you much," the Chief said as if he had read his mind.

The android glanced at him with slightly narrowed eyes before getting in the car.

"So, where do I have to pick him up?" he asked.

"He'll arrive to the Southeast entrance of the Park about 11:45. So you'd better leave now. The locking key of the barrier that closes the access road is in your key set. It is the green one."

Seventeen closed the door and started the car. The Chief rested his arm in the car's window profile and stared at him with stern face.

"Remember you must keep in contact with him all the time, boy, at least during the first weeks."

And his advice sounded quite like: 'don't let this one die'.

The android smiled crookedly to the Chief, put gear to D position, and left.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

The Park's wildest part was surrounded by the South Road which was where the Southeast entrance started.

There was no traffic at all that morning. The road surface was white because of the salt and the morning sunlight made it shine.

Seventeen's all-road car was parked in the sideroad, just where the forest trail started. He was casually leaning against the car and fiddling with his key set.

The bus stop wasn't to far and there was nobody waiting. There was only one bus route which arrived on there once a day and no so many people used to take it, because the place was, in fact, in the middle of nowhere.

But then the low sound of a bus caught his attention after a long time of only hearing birds singing. It approached at low speed until the bus stop, then it stopped completely and opened the doors.

Only one person got out of the bus and pulled out a bulky backpack from the trunk. The bus resumed its way while the traveler yet eagerly peered around.

Finally he spotted Seventeen about fifty meters away, put his heavy backpack on and started to walk clumsily towards the android. He was short and weak, and the backpack's weight seemed to sink him into the ground with every step he took. He walked bowing his head like a penitent.

And only when he was a few meters from Seventeen's car, he raised his head. He was, indeed, a she. And she was short and thin and was having a hard time under the weight of so big backpack.

The woman arrived to him and dropped the backpack to the ground with a thud. She then straightened painfully and looked at the man holding still before her **;** he stared back at her, expressionless. She knew he was a ranger because the orange armband he was wearing.

"Hi! I'm the new zoologist from the Wildlife Conservation Department" she said, holding Seventeen's icy gaze the best she could. "My name's Ruby."

There was no answer from him. Seventeen went into the car, instead, started it, and stared back at her again.

She didn't know if he wanted she to shut up or simply to go into the car. But after a few seconds of watching her hesitation Seventeen clicked his tongue and looked at her like: 'Hop in!'.

Ruby took her backpack from the floor and dragged it until the back door, but she found something unexpected in the backside: a pair of huge metal cans.

She then looked at the ranger's direction and discovered a pair of ice blue eyes staring back at her through the side mirror.

"Eh… Seems like I have a little trouble here… My luggage doesn't fit," she said. Seventeen's finger pointed the car's roof and smiled sideways. "Ok," Ruby murmured.

She managed to put her backpack on the roof and held it to the bars using a bungee cord, all by herself. By the time she got into the car Ruby was no cold anymore, but she was even less cold when she found a rifle near her head in a gun rack, with a printed inscription on it: 'Remington 700P TWS'.

Ruby took his gloves and wool cap off revealing a long chocolate brown hair whose end was hidden inside the coat. She looked at his expressionless face and chose not to take her coat off; it seemed he has a liking on driving with the windows down.

When Ruby fastened her seat belt, Seventeen put the car in reverse and turned around. He looked back through the rear window, and she took the time to glance on the sly at the boy's features, half hidden under that cowboy hat.

He was very young, even more than her. Maybe the cold weather had that rejuvenating effect on the skin…

The ranger stopped the car and got out. Ruby could see him through the inside mirror locking the access barrier.

She sighed and rested her head on the hard seat of the car. How has she ended having such bad luck? According to the Department info, this unfriendly person was the one in charge of the Observatory area.

How wonderful...

Seventeen got into the car not even looking at her once. She frowned at it and crossed her arms willing to spend all the way to her new workplace looking through her window.

 **..::::..**

* * *

 _*Wicode: abbreviation for Wildlife Conservation Department used by the Rangers._

 _ **Author's note:**_

 _It's been a year and a half since Seventeen joined the Rangers Department. His behaviour is a little confusing, I know this. In next chapters I'll explain why, but I can say now that he is simply stuck at that moment in his life; he has settled for a lonely life and he can't move forward. But for him it's not a bad thing, it is what he has chosen to live anyway so he really believes that it is appropriate for himself. And in addition he has discovered that he loves calmness. Who would have ever thought that?_

 _I'm having a hard time with each chapter translation, but also having fun so It's worth the effort. Hope you like it too._

 _I will gladly receive any suggestion regarding narrative, grammar, sentence structures… Anything! If you could help me improve somehow I would be very happy :)_

 _Thank you very much for reading!_

* * *

Dragon Ball © Akira Toriyama


	4. In the darkness

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter IV: In the darkness

* * *

 **..::::..**

A pretty big bird flew over the forest trail and she leaned forward until her nose almost touched the car's windscreen.

The sudden gesture called Seventeen's attention and he glanced at her. Ruby was mumbling quietly to herself while looking outside with narrowed eyes.

"Have you seen that?" she asked in awe.

He smiled crookedly and looked at the road again.

Ruby leaned back and sighed.

"Well, is it always going to be like this with you?"

"Like what?"

She raised her brows, surprised to hear the first word from him since they had met.

He has a manly, velvet voice with a deep and calm sound… Too calm, almost threatening.

She glanced at his smiling profile. He was pretty handsome despite of wearing that mocking grin all the time. Ruby shook her head, annoyed, and focused on the forest again. He was a hard person to handle but she wasn't going to allow that idiot's behaviour to bother her. Anyway, she has no intention of contacting him if not necessary.

Both of them remained quiet until arrive to a narrow and steep trail. Seventeen stopped the car and put it in low gear before start to climb the hill.

As they gained height the landscape was more and more beautiful. There was a completely different perspective of the valley, the mountains and the lake from there. Ruby was amazed enough to forget all about that man's unkindness but when the road slope became gentler the ranger startled her with an unexpected comment.

"We'll find the 'chocolate house' very soon..."

And there he was with that stupid grin again. Definitely she didn't understand his jokes. But Ruby noticed the ranger's irony the moment she saw the Observatory shelter after the last turn of the bumpy road.

Seventeen stopped the car and the both of them remained in silence, looking to the bleak hut.

The shelter looked clearly abandoned. It was to be expected, though: anybody hadn't lived there since Ben's death. One of the wooden shutters held on from a single hinge and the door was clearly blocked by a very deeply-rooted weed under the door.

What a depressing place...

"Guess you'll be busy for a while and I don't want to be a nuisance, so, I'm out of here," he said.

She only nodded. The think of living there for an undefined time was so overwhelming that she couldn't even properly react to his mocking. She opened the car's door and slowly got out while scanning the surroundings of the Observatory.

The sight was lovely at least.

Ruby closed the door and zipped her jacket. She sighed then and took out her huge backpack from the luggage rack… Most accurately, she threw it down the floor.

"Hey, don't forget this," Seventeen said. He held out a walkie-talkie and a map to her. Ruby took them both and blinked at the sight of the walkie-talkie.

"How does this work?" she asked.

"This is the on/off button. This is the channel frequency selector knob. If you want to speak, press the switch button; if you want to receive an answer, release it. If you want to finish a conversation, say 'CLEAR' once. I am on channel 2," he said. Ruby was trying hard to catch some word but she has barely understood the 'press for talk' button thing when the explanation was over. "It should be a car under that cover over there. And the keys, I wonder… Inside the house, probably," he mumbled.

The ranger started the car and she stamped her hands on the window frame to stop him.

"Wait!" she screamed. He stared daggers at her and Ruby lowered her voice. "I don't even know your name yet…"

"Seventeen," he said. He stepped on the gas pedal and she jumped back to get away. He would have smashed her feet with no doubt if she had not moved away, somehow she knew that.

"Seventeen? What kind of name is that?"

* * *

 **...**

* * *

It ended being a peaceful day.

Seventeen had only run into a pair of hikers with no permission to camp, so he had to bring them back to the Head Office. After that he spent the rest of the time exploring a route he hadn't patrol for a while, and there he found a fallen tree blocking the way. He tried to use the car winch to clear the road but that tree was too heavy for it and Seventeen finally had to use his own hands to clear the way. It was really fun.

And when the night finally fell, Seventeen's beloved peace returned along with the darkness.

As always, he placed himself in his old rocking chair, eyes closed, feet up the railing and face hidden under his hat.

But switching off wasn't an easy thing to do that night. His mind had unexpectedly restored some memories from his system, a remnant of a short past life he had chosen to bury after joining the Rangers, but seemed like it was harder than he expected.

Sadly, he wasn't able to remember anything from his life before the day he woke up at Dr. Gero's laboratory, being already Seventeen. His past life, who he had been, everything was totally blank. Gero made sure to erase any trace of Seventeen's memories before transform him.

And precisely, the day Dr. Gero first switched him on was the one he was thinking about now. Seventeen vaguely remembered something like a "test mission" about this day. Everything turned blur in his mind then, and lastly, he remembered Gero himself using a remote control against him and Eighteen while saying something about a 'malfunction'.

He got drawn into the darkness, unable to move. His breathing became artificially controlled by a computer and even his mind stopped being his. It was a feeling like falling down a cliff, frightening and heinous enough to him to take the choice of killing that son of a bitch if he woke him up some day again, this way Gero could not interfere with Seventeen's free will anymore.

But unfortunately, despite killing him Seventeen was forced to obey Dr. Gero's commands because the damn scientist had programmed him to murder someone called Son Goku no matter what. And he could not reformat himself; Seventeen didn't have root permission on his own system.

Everything he did those days dragged him to the place Goku was hiding in. He wasn't his body's nor actions owner. Even now, thinking about Eighteen and Sixteen did bring him back very painful memories of that sensation and he would have preferred not been able to remember his pal and his sister at all if this way he could get rid of that feeling.

But luckily, he was his own master now. He might not be able to remember his past life but, in the end, he had certainly forged his own identity: Seventeen was a ranger now. This was the path HE had chosen.

And then…

" _Seventeen?"_

A short call emerged from his switched on walkie-talkie.

Seventeen breathed slowly and took the hat off his face. He glanced the device over the old table, on the porch's other side.

" _Seventeen? Do you hear me?"_

The android stood up from the rocking chair and walked towards the walkie-talkie.

"Loud and clear," he answered and released the button. He only heard some noise from the other side of the line, like she was pressing the communication button not knowing what to say.

" _Were you sleeping already...?"_ she mumbled.

Seventeen squinted. This was the very first time someone asked him something like that.

"No," he answered.

His only word didn't help improving the conversation flow. He heard the same noise for a few seconds before hearing her tiny voice again.

" _Eh… I only wanted to check if this thing worked properly and… Ah… It is very dark here."_

Seventeen shifted his weight from one leg to the other and sighed.

"It's night," he said, and it was a sound reasoning.

" _Ah… Yes. It is really very dark one…"_ she said.

"Moonless nights are always like this," he explained.

" _Yes, of course… But it's really really dark, Seventeen."_

"Speak more clearly!" he demanded with a not so kind voice.

" _The generator has stopped and it does not start. I can't even turn on a light bulb,"_ she explained with wavering voice. _"I'm inside my tent now, my flashlight is running out of battery and… A few moments ago I've listened something like a snarl and… Seventeen?"_

He frowned. Were not Wicode people supposed to have survival skills? He moistened his lips but took a few seconds to answer. He didn't have the slightest intention of moving from his peaceful hut. But—

" _Seventeen?"_ she begged, and she sounded even more scared.

"What a fucking nightmare!" he roared. "Coming!" he said, pressing the button this time. Seventeen went into the little house and took his rifle. He then pressed the device button one last time, "Don't waste the walkie's battery. Clear."

" _Ok… Thank you."_

He left his own radio device on stand by and walked briskly towards his car.

Well, a small change of plans wasn't that bad. It had been a while since the last time he patrolled the forest at night. And she was right: that night was really dark.

It only took him half an hour to get there. Seventeen stopped the car and when the lights turned off he found himself in a complete darkness. He took his flashlight, as well as his rifle from the overhead rack, and left the car. He saw a tent a few meters of distance from the shelter, it seemed to have been set up on a rush.

And something was moving inside of it.

With no hesitation, Seventeen walked towards the tent and unzipped the door inmediately.

Ruby was startled to find him out there so suddenly; she hadn't even heard him arrive.

She opened her mouth to talk but didn't find any smart words to say.

Seventeen crouched before the tent door to have a better look of her face. Then he squinted at her and grinned mischievously.

Despite her silence her terrified stares said it all. It was worth coming there to see that funny face.

"So camping, mnh?" he said with his velvet voice, smiling yet.

She frowned and pouted, and left the tent without looking at him. Still putting on her thick jacket, Ruby walked towards the little building and her anger raised even more on hearing his soft laughter behind her.

Seventeen followed her to one side of the shelter where there was a diesel generator over a wooden platform, without stop grinning once.

"It stopped suddenly while I was still cleaning up inside there. And I couldn't restart it."

She shut up, crossed her arms and continue looking at the generator while feeling his stare on her.

Seventeen carefully put the rifle on the platform, near the generator. He turned the key and pressed the start button. He could hear the ignition spark sound but the motor didn't start. It was an automatic generator so there wasn't any lever nor a starter rope to use.

He crouched besides the machine and groped for the fuel cap. He removed it and light the fuel tank insides up with the flashlight.

"The tank is empty," he said.

Ruby raised her brows and opened her mouth to give him a smart reply but closed it right away.

And his smile grew even more wide when he saw her reaction.

"Oh…" she managed to say, finally.

"There must be a fuel can inside the shed. Go to the Head Office tomorrow morning and fill it. It should be enough for a couple of weeks."

That being said, Seventeen closed the cap, took the rifle and started to walk towards his car.

Ruby saw him and couldn't believe her eyes.

"Hey! Where are you going?" she asked, chasing him.

"To my post. I left it without saying a word to the Headquarters."

"But, are you going to leave me here like that?" she said, panicked.

"Like what?" Seventeen asked then. He had already opened the door and got into the car. She arrived there when Seventeen was still putting the rifle on the rack.

"Like that!" Ruby pointed around. "In the darkness!" she screamed.

Seventeen closed the door and rested his arm on the window frame. He lighted her face directly, making her to blink several times, but her frightened expresion remainded the same even then. He looked emotionless at her for a while and then, Seventeen handed her his own flashlight.

"The battery will last four hours. Manage it wisely," he said. He started the car and put gear on D position. "And sleep inside the shelter. It's spring and—"

"But there is a 'daddy longlegs' nest inside there, Seventeen!" she yelled at him.

"Better sleeping with them than being eaten by a bear," he replied.

And without any further ado, Seventeen took off, leaving the girl alone in the shelter with the only protection of a flashlight.

 **..::::..**

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_

He's the most adorable man in the whole world!

Does anyone of you have seen a 'daddy longlegs' nest? I've seen it once. It was the day I made the fastest run of my whole life.

Please, leave me any comment, advice or suggestion in a review, I'll be very grateful for that :)

Thank you so much for reading!

* * *

Dragon Ball © Akira Toriyama


	5. The weirdo

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter V: The weirdo

* * *

 **..::::..**

Seventeen opened his eyes at dawn. Like every morning, he was laying in his old rocking chair, legs crossed and feet up the wooden railing.

He stood up and unconsciously made something odd: he stretched himself.

When he realized what he was doing he stopped immediately. ¿Where did that need of stretching came from? It was the first time he had felt that way, but surprisingly it didn't felt bad at all.

Seventeen entered inside his hut and returned to the porch right away, carrying both the rifle and the pistol. He left them over the porch table and brought some more items like some cleaning brushes, a microfiber cloth, a cleaning rod, solvent and gun oil, and lastly he put a chair near the table.

He unloaded the semi-automatic and disassembled it in only five fast moves. He thoroughly cleaned each component, put some gun oil into them and finally reassembled the weapon. After that, Seventeen proceed to do the same with the rifle.

It was his favourite weapon besides his shotgun. And it was the envy of the Headquarters, he knew that very well. Nobody before him had acquired the license for the use of this weapon in the Park; the rifle was a long-range shooting gun and there were too many trees, so hitting the target wasn't an easy thing for anybody to do.

It wasn't like he needed a license at all, obviously, Seventeen could have any gun he liked without permission. But passing the tests was part of the fun too, and besides that, he had an extra advantage over the rest of rangers because his registers were full of firearms info, and also, Seventeen felt a very strong attraction for any kind of weapons. It might be a remnant of the likes he had before becoming an android.

He enjoyed shooting and loved the smell of gunpowder in the air. And for sure, he took good care of each of his guns.

He had finished cleaning every part of the rifle and was applying a little gun oil into them when he heard a sound from inside the hut. He stopped and listened.

It was like an electrical noise or something similar.

And, suddenly...

 _"Seventeen?"_

He narrowed his eyes. _Again?_ he thought.

" _Seventeen...? Do you hear me?"_

He took his time to finish his cleaning task, reassembled the rifle and loaded it. Then he entered inside the house and took his walkie-talkie.

"This is Seventeen. Go ahead," he replied.

" _Hi... Eh... I thought you wouldn't reply..."_

Seventeen remained silent for a moment.

"Why would I do that?" he asked with a sharp tone.

" _You're right. What a silly thing to say..."_ she murmured.

"Listen, I have to work now," he said, willing to close the communication.

" _Wait! I have a problem. You see, my car—"_

"Make sure the fuel tank is not empty," he cut her off.

" _Yeah, I did it, but this time is not that,"_ she complained. _"It is a quad."_

"Cool! Enjoy it," he said with his finger placed already on the device's on/off button.

" _No! Wait, Seventeen! Could you listen to me for a second, please? How am I supposed to carry a full fuel can on a quad?"_

Seventeen remained lost in thoughts. She has a point, Ruby was a tiny and fragile looking woman. It was unlikely for her being skilled enough to carry with such an extra weight on a quad. In addition, rangers' quads didn't have any luggage rack at all.

He breathed deeply before reply her.

"Coming."

" _Y-yes?"_

"Yeah. Clear"

Seventeen switched off his walkie, and entered the house again to put in on a brown leather jacket and his beloved hat. He also put on a gun holster and placed the semi-automatic there, and then took the walkie as well as the rifle and walked towards his car.

He drove with opened windows the whole 6 miles between his hut and Ruby's shelter and stopped the car in front the little building's door.

Seventeen got out of the car and closed the door, and Ruby emerged from the shelter at the sound of it.

Her looks were pretty funny again and Seventeen smiled amused at the sight of her face. And again, she got silently offended by that mocking grin of his. Ruby crossed her arms and looked to the other side, frowning.

Seventeen walked slowly towards her while glancing at the surroundings. The quad was nearby and seemed like she had managed to start it already. Good, one less problem for him. The shelter's windows were wide opened and Ruby had dark circles under her eyes.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked with a kind voice but smiling mischievously.

"I couldn't sleep at all," she answered tired.

Seventeen's hand suddenly reached to the girl's long brown hair.

"And how was your night with the 'daddy longlegs'?"

He opened his hand and showed her what was in it. Ruby looked at the long legs spider which had been on her hair moments ago and screamed shaking her head like crazy.

And he laughed out loud. Annoying her was a very enjoyable and easy thing to do.

"It was awful!" she whimpered. "I was tempted to set this entire place on fire!"

"Well, starting a fire is a good way to have me here in only a few seconds," he calmly said.

"Cool! Now I know it for the next time I need you."

"You are supposed to be prepared for outside living. Don't blame me for your ineptitud."

"Don't worry, I'm only blaming your lack of chivalry!"

"Ooh, you just broke my heart..." he said giving her a wry smile. "Where's that fuel can?" he said, changing the subject.

"In the back shed. It is so heavy I couldn't—"

"Go get it and put it inside the car."

"You see what I mean?!" she growled.

"Yeah, and I'm going to do you a solid by taking you to the Headquarters' petrol station and back again with your damn fuel can. I'm not your fucking slave! Go get the can yourself!"

With that last roar Seventeen ended the fight and got into the car.

That conversation would have ended fast and awful for that girl in a different point of his life, but now Seventeen needed to hold himself from getting completely mad. He didn't want to get into troubles, he only wanted his beloved peace and have some fun, that was all. But still, he didn't understand at all why he was putting up with that girl. It didn't make sense.

Thinking about that, he absently looked at the side mirror and saw Ruby dragging a 40 liters metal fuel can to the car. And then he couldn't help but laugh at her.

 _She's funny_ , he thought. _That's why I put up with her._

* * *

 **...**

* * *

The ride to the petrol station next to the Headquarters wasn't like a pleasure trip at all. It was a never ending trip through forest trails, in a car with awfully uncomfortable seats, driven by the most careless driver of the whole world. They hadn't even arrived to the main road and Ruby was already suffering a terrible headache.

She was massaging her temples while listening to his little jokes about the "good" conditions of the track when a voice emerged from Seventeen's walkie-talkie.

" _This is Rangers Headquarters, Rangers Headquarters calling all units to the Head Office. Over."_

 _"This is Jimmy. Coming!"_

" _This is Flynn. Flynn to Rangers Headquarters. Coming."_

Almost a dozen of rangers replied to the Headquarters call. Seventeen took his walkie from the rack and pressed the button. "This is Seventeen. Roger that," he said. He placed the device back on the rack and glanced kindly at Ruby. She already knew him enough and expected nothing good from that kind of look. And she wasn't wrong. "You better hold on tight," he whispered.

"What are you going to—?"

Seventeen sped up and Ruby had barely time to grab ahold of the assist grip. He drove the last mile at top speed.

The car skidded before stop near the Rangers Headquarters building, and Seventeen left the car and walked to the Head Office without a word. More rangers had already gathered around the Chief and were listening to his explanations.

Outside the office, Ruby slowly opened the car's door and slid down to the floor. Her head felt like it was going to explode. She leaned on the car's side, eyes closed, for almost five minutes. Until the office door burst open and a dozen of rangers left the building and run towards three huge off-road vehicles parked nearby.

He passed near her and grabbed his rifle as well as a shooting tripod from the car's overhead rack. Ruby glanced at him and knew about her own pitiful appearance by watching his mocking grin.

"Everything ok, _'_ Zoolowimp _'_?

 _Zoolowimp?_ she repeated in her mind. Flabbergasted as she was by his disrespectful words, Ruby couldn't react on time to give him a proper answer, and Seventeen flee to one of the big cars waiting for him.

The three cars of the rangers disappeared through the forest trail.

And there she stayed, on her own and with no car keys. Well, at least Seventeen had left the doors opened. She could just curl up inside there and take a nap, for the time being, that way she could rest a little, Ruby hadn't slept at all that night because of all those damn long leg spiders. She got goosebumps just by thinking about them...

"Lass! Hey lassie!"

Ruby turned towards the voice and saw a tall burly man wearing an apron and standing in front of the tavern's door.

"He's going to be late! C'mere!"

Ruby shrugged; she didn't have a single thing to do besides filling her fuel can anyway. So she grabbed her lightweight backpack, closed the door and walked into the bar.

It was like a roadhouse where people could have a good breakfast and some coffee served from a jar. Sunshine poured into the place through old net curtains that hang over the windows. There were only a few tables here and there, and one of them was occupied by three rangers, all of them older than those who had just gone away.

The burly man pointed one of the tall stools lined in front of him and smiled widely. It was a truly heartwarming gesture for Ruby after all the cocky smiles she had received from Seventeen in one day, so she gestured back at him and obeyed.

"You are the new scientist from Wicode, aren't you?" he asked, clearing the bar.

"Pardon? Wicode?" she said, blinking at him.

He realised his mistake and hurried to explain himself.

"Ah! I mean the Wildlife Conservation Department. We call it the Wicode, to cut it short... Yun Lee! More coffee!" he shouted towards the kitchen's door.

"Right away!" a girly voice replied from inside that room, and the man looked at Ruby again.

"So, what's your name, lass?"

Ruby looked at him, brows raised. That man's easy going attitude was almost shocking for her after Seventeen's rudeness from the past two days. She had started to fear that way of treating people was the usual one in that place.

"My name's Ruby, and yeah, I'm from the Wicode," she said smiling broadly. "How did you know that?"

"Easy! I spend all day listening to their chatter, especially to the Chief's. And besides that I honestly doubted you being his girl... Do you prefer fried or scrambled eggs?" the man asked before disappear through the kitchen's door.

"Ah, scrambled..." she said.

He came back only a few minutes later carrying a plate.

"What did you say before that?" she asked and pointed to the plate on his hands.

"Oh, Seventeen's girlfriend, I meant. And, what kinda work are you gonna do here?" he asked, and without a word he placed a plate with scrambled eggs and sausage in front of her. She looked at it, eyes wide opened.

"Thank you, really, but I think this is too much!" she complained, but he raised a hand and stopped her babbling.

"Eat it! You were coming here in Seventeen's car when he received the Headquarters call. I know very well how he drives when he is in a hurry and I didn't see you blowing chunks when you left that car. So, you didn't have breakfast, did you? C'mon, eat!"

"If you aren't going to eat that, I'll do it. Yunpei is such a cheapskate..." a man sitting in the only occupied table said before sipping from his coffee cup.

"Shut up, you grouch" Yunpei mumbled. "By the way, what are you doing still here? What if they need reinforcements?"

"The Chief himself has gone with them and the place is an hour far from here. There will be a shooting, of course, and after that they'll come back to the Headquarters. No problem, I have plenty of time for my coffee break."

"A shooting?" she whispered, and looked worriedly to that man.

"Sure. The federal police warned us about a group of armed robbers that ran away through the forest just after robbing a bank. It looks like the police has been chasing them but finally lost the track. Police patrol cars are not fit for driving the park trails, and they needed the rangers to make their job. Oh, yes! Of course it will be a shooting! But don't make that face, seems like that boy can even dodge the bullets.

She forced a laugh but found it difficult to calm down. Seventeen was really an idiot but she didn't want him to be harmed, well, neither him nor the rest of the guys, of course.

Ruby sighed. Sadly, the only thing she could do was waiting for him to come back safely.

She grabbed her fork and started eating, and it was then when she realised how starved she was; she had barely eaten something since the day before and those scrambled eggs were delicious.

"Do you want seconds?" Yunpei happily said.

"Oh! No, thanks. I have to go back to the shelter in that man's car, and I wonder if he'll be kind enough to stop whenever I need to puke. So, I'd better just don't eat much."

"As you wish! Coffee then?"

"Yun Lee's coffee tastes foul!" said the ranger from before. He had stood up and was leaving some coins over the counter before heading towards the door.

"Shut up, old man!" the girly voice replied from inside the kitchen.

"But she has too good hearing..."

Finally the man left and Yunpei laughed. A girl carrying a coffee jar got out from the kitchen and served some coffee in a cup in front of Ruby.

"Thank you," she said politely.

"You are welcome, dear," the girl replied, and went back to the kitchen.

"Yun Lee is my daughter. She's the cook of this tavern, and yes, her coffee could wake up a dead man," Yunpei whispered. "So, tell me, what are you going to do in the lake's observatory?"

Ruby took a sip of that coffee and found that Yun Lee's fame was true. She added some extra sugar on it before reply.

"Well, I'm a zoologist, and basically I'm going to continue the previous scientist's work," she explained. "I was his pupil in college, and he introduced me to the Wildlife Dep... To the Wicode, I mean, shortly before he had that horrible accident... Ben was totally convinced about the existence here of a rare species of eagle which nowadays is believed as extinct. Sadly, he couldn't prove it," she said. "Hearing him talking about his work here was very inspirational for me. I really believed in him... And besides all that he even kept track of elks yearly births, studied foraging behaviors, localized mating areas and—"

"And is all of that the work of an only person? Unbelievable..." Yunpei said, astonished.

She shrugged slightly.

"Truth be told, there aren't many volunteers to work in here."

Yunpei nodded.

"Yeah, I know it. It isn't a suitable work for everybody. It reminds me of Seventeen's work, for example. His lookout was vacant for six months before he arrived. These morons from there," he pointed to the rangers who were peacefully reading the daily press, "betted he wouldn't hold even one week in that abandoned spot and, guess what?" Yunpei approached her and Ruby unconsciously did the same. Those were the first words about Seventeen she had the opportunity to listen to. "Nobody won that bet! He has been there, since... Since..."

"A year and a half!" shouted Yun Lee from the kitchen.

"Yeah! A year and a half! And he has not even enjoyed a single free day, nor vacation!"

Ruby sighed. _Really? Who could live with no vacation at all?_ She thought. The rest of the people working there seemed normal guys. Why did she have to put up with that weirdo?

"Yunpei, has he always been like that? I mean Seventeen," she asked.

"Yep. He has always been reliable and a hard worker," he replied.

Yunpei was smiling kindly at her. His answer was not the one she was expecting, but thinking about it thoroughly, it was true that Seventeen had come to help her the two times she had needed him, Yunpei was right.

The girl nodded and smiled back at him. And then he continued talking. "But it's also true that he sometimes can be a little idiot, and he has a very special sense of humor too, so special it is that he is the only able to understand it, and he drives them all crazy," he pointed to the absent minded rangers in the table. "And he has his own way of doing things. But very deep inside he's not a bad guy."

Ruby finished her coffee. Lost in thoughts, she combed her hair to one side over her shoulder. It sure wasn't an easy thing, being isolated in the middle of nowhere. That might be the reason of his odd behaviour. But Ruby was a patient person, and for her own sake she was willing to have a better work relationship with him.

She squinted at Yunpei, who wasn't aware of her stare.

"Ok. Does Seventeen come here often to have a drink or something like that?" She asked. Spending free time together with the rest of the staff might be a good idea and maybe this way Ruby would get to understand him better.

But Yunpei shaked his head.

"Never! Not even once!"

She snorted and the man laughed out loud.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

Morning passed by and Ruby had time enough to read his mentor notes, the press and a magazine she found on a shelf in the tavern. She also ate a sandwich and listened to some music; and about three in the afternoon, Ruby was waiting for him, sitting on the wooden porch stairs of the rangers office and near her now refilled fuel can.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of some car engines, and shortly after, she saw the three off-road cars of the Rangers Department emerging from a hidden track in the forest thicket. She stood up, shoke the dust from her trousers and started to walk towards the now parked cars.

The doors of one of them burst open and four officials got out, grabbing some handcuffed men by the arms. One of the arrested men wore a bandage on his leg and screamed in pain with every step he took. Two rangers helped him arrive to a door with a red cross sign on it, and then, the improvised bandage the man was wearing on fell to the floor and Ruby could see perfectly how badly his flesh was torn.

"Oh my God...!" she gasped.

The doctor opened the door in that very moment and looked at them.

"Ok, what do we have here?" he said.

"A 51 caliber wound on the leg."

"Did the bullet pass through?" the doctor asked, inspecting the wound severity.

"Yep. But... You see..." one of the rangers hesitated then and the doctor had a better look of the other side of the wound. The man was almost passed out.

"Yeah, I see. The bullet had destroyed the flesh..."

The man was attended by the doctor and the rest of the rangers got out from the office, weapons prepared, and surrounded the cars.

"The police is going to arrive at any moment." one of them said.

"Hey Chief! How far did the boy shoot them?"

"One hundred and eighty meters," the Chief answered from inside one of the cars. He then got out and lighted a cigarette.

"You do have a sniper here!" one of the arrested man shouted. His face was red of anger, and tried to resist the agent who was grabbing him by the arms. "That is illegal!"

"Shooting this forest rangers is the only illegal thing here!" the Chief growled back at him. "Your friend could consider himself a lucky man, the rifle bullet could have teared his bone apart, and it haven't done it!"

And in the middle of the argument, Seventeen emerged from the last of the cars, dragging another arrested man while twisting his arm. The android was smiling slightly and he has no trace of wounds at all.

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him finally back, safe and sound.

"Idiot! You aren't so brave without your rifle! Are you?" the robber mumbled, and received immediately a punch in his back that left him breathless.

Seventeen led him to the ranger in charge of the cells and went back to the official car to took his hat, his shooting tripod and his rifle from inside. Then he looked for someone inside the crowd.

Ruby jumped at the sight of Seventeen's gaze on her.

"Put the can inside the car," he said, using the same calm voice as always.

How could he think about the fuel can in the middle of a fuss like that?

"O-ok..." she whispered, unable to protest.

He entered the office and Ruby started to drag her heavy metal can towards Seventeen's car. It was heavy as hell and she was in a really bad shape. Ruby pulled from the handle, leaving a line in the floor, and walked around all the rangers. Nobody paid attention to the superhuman task she was doing.

But when she finally reached the car she realised how difficult it would be for her lifting it from the ground and putting it in the back seat.

Seventeen left the office and found her near the car, with an utter exhaustion printed on her face.

"What is it now?" he asked, annoyed, and walked towards the car.

"I can't lift it, Seventeen. It is too heavy," she answered weakly.

He clicked his tongue, put his rifle on the overhead rack as well as his shooting tripod, and walked around the car. With only one hand and one easy movement, he put the heavy can inside the car like it was nothing.

She couldn't believe her eyes, Seventeen was incredibly strong despite not being too muscular.

"Let's go," he said from inside the car.

She took off her backpack and almost jumped into the passenger seat. Seventeen had already started the car and put it on reverse and she was fastening her seat belt when a voice roared from outside.

"Ruby! Come back soon!" Yunpei was wavering his hand from the tavern's door. She smiled broadly and made the same gesture back at him. "Seventeen!" he shouted then, "If she finds the way to put up with you, don't let her get away!"

He then shared a few laughs with the rest of the rangers staff and Ruby felt her own cheeks burning red. Seventeen smiled crookedly and shouted back at him, "Yeah, yeah... I don't know what I'd do without your advices!"

And that said, they headed back to the Observatory.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

Talking to Seventeen was an almost impossible task, Ruby knew that. And she knew as well that the trip back to her shelter wasn't going to be smooth with a driver like him, so she didn't even try to start a conversation; she put on her headphones and listened to some music, trying to ignore how uncomfortably her seat was. But the lack of rest from the night before and her busy morning started to take on her its toll very soon, and finally Ruby fell sound asleep.

It was night when she woke up. Ruby moaned in pain and brushed her long hair away from her face, still half asleep. She ached all over. She noticed immediately where she was: in the passenger seat of Seventeen's car. But he wasn't there and the engine was stopped.

Ruby looked outside. There was a little building with light in every window.

"Wait... This is my shelter," she whispered astonished. Were there lights in her shelter? But how? The lightbulbs were all blown.

The freezing wind strook on her face when she got out of the car. Ruby put her jacket on quickly and walked towards the house at the same moment he was leaving it, and they almost bumped into each other. He glared at her with icy eyes and she looked away from him.

For some reason, Seventeen's blue gaze was difficult to face.

"Well, you finally woke up, mnh?" he mockingly said. Ruby bit her lip feeling embarrassed and didn't reply. "You have enough electric power for passing a week and a half at least, if you use it carefully. There are 10 more liters in the can still. Don't put it at the sun."

Seventeen walked away from her, willing to get into the car, and she started to understand the whole thing, her half sleep mind had not helped at all until then.

It was like Yunpei had said: he wasn't a bad guy at all: Seventeen had let her sleep all the way back home, he had took care of her generator and had even changed the blown light bulbs for new ones.

He was kind, definitely he was, she had no doubt about it now. But she still could not believe it, though.

 _Thank you so much_ , those were the words she should had said then, but she said a different ones instead.

"Why did you do all that?" Ruby whispered in awe.

He looked at her over his shoulder and grinned mischievously.

"Easy: I want you to leave me alone once and for all."

His tone was harsh, his eyes cold, and he didn't say goodbye when he got into the car.

And then, the spark of kindness Ruby thought she had seen on him disappeared likewise his car did in the forest.

 **..::::..**

* * *

 ** _Author's note:_**

 _First of all, I want to thank you guys for all your support, reads, favorites and comments. I didn't expect to have so many of them. Really, thanks!_

 _I had some problem while updating the story a while ago, so I erased the chapter and published it again._

 _This chapter was a very difficult one, because a lot of things: the radio conversations (I have to learn about walkie-talkie conversations protocol, the common signals, terms and stuff), all the armfire vocabulary (I was watching rifle cleaning videos and reading stuff about shooting... I've never ever shot a gun, nor a rifle), and the most difficult of all: the nickname that Seventeen gives to Ruby._

 _In Spanish the translation of zoologist is 'zoóloga' and I made a play on words here (or a pun, I don't know the proper name) with her job: he calls her '_ Bichóloga _' which is the merge of '_ bicho _', a word that sounds like the first part of zoóloga and means '_ bug _', and the ending of zoóloga. '_ Bichóloga _' and '_ zoóloga _' sound alike, and in the end it was Seventeen's way to make fun of her with a little name-calling and using his intelligence, and I thought it fitted perfectly with his personality._

 _I'm not English native, so this part was a real challenge. And after thinking a lot about it I finally chose 'Z_ oolowimp _' as the english version of that play of words: the first part of 'zoologist', and the word '_ wimp _',_ _perfect for Ruby. And zoologist and '_ Zoolowimp' _sound alike (I think)._

 _Difficult as this translation was, if you find something odd (expressions, sentence constructions, words, etc), please let me know them. It would be very useful for future translations to know this things._

 _Thanks a lot for reading!_

 _P.D.: You can find me on facebook: Syad Fanfic (Page), twitter, instagram and tumblr: Syadworld. I usually share drawings on social networks (I'm an artist too :D)_

* * *

Dragon Ball © Akira Toriyama


	6. Nature

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter VI: Integrity

* * *

 **..::::..**

At dawn, like always, Seventeen opened his eyes. He was laying in his old rocking chair, legs crossed and feet up the porch's wooden railing.

He stood up, stretched himself and breathed deeply. It really was a great feeling.

Like every morning, he entered inside the hut and got out almost immediately, putting on his gun holster. His boots made a strong sound on the floor's wooden boards which crooked with every step he took. He put on his hat and stared at the forest for a while, lost in thoughts.

Patrolling the lake's shore was the plan of the day. That was the place where elk herds went every day to drink and the risk of being attacked there was really high because male elks became especially careless when they were on heat.

That day Seventeen had the hope to find some poachers waiting the elks to come down, near the highest forest paths.

Since the day of the shooting he had found nobody in his area, and Seventeen was becoming anxious and bored.

He prepared his weapons and his walkie-talkie. He loaded his rifle, put his orange bandanna and a short dark green jacket on and, almost ready to go, looked for his car keys inside his coat pockets, when...

" _Seventeen?"_

He glanced at his walkie, over the porch's table. The red led was flashing, so she was waiting for a reply.

He hadn't heard a thing from her since almost a week. It seemed like she was learning how to live by her own, finally.

The android grabbed his walkie and pressed the button.

"This is Seventeen."

" _Good morning!"_ she greeted him so energetically that almost made him smile.

"...Morning," he said, shyly. Seventeen have no memories of being greeted that way ever before.

" _You have a lot of work, I already know that,"_ she said before he could add anything more. _"But I can see some smoke from here. It is a campfire, I guess… I thought you would want to know."_

"Where are you?" he asked, walking already towards his car.

" _Oh, I'm on the top of a cliff, I don't know its name… Ah, wait a moment, I'll look at the map. Let's see…"_

Seventeen opened the door of his car and put the rifle and the semi-automatic on the rack. He sat inside and started the engine, and then clicked his tongue and frowned impatient; he had no response from her yet.

"What that place looks like?"

" _Well… There is a narrow path from where I left the quad to here. There are no trees nearby, only three giant rocks lined one beside the other and—"_

"Coming."

" _What?"_

"Stay there. Clear"

* * *

 **...**

* * *

Seventeen stopped his car alongside the road that led to the top of the Three Sister's Cliff, the place where Ruby was working in that day. The path became narrow ahead and no car fitted.

He took a binoculars off the gloves compartment, grabbed his firearms and started to walk uphill. He found Ruby's blue quad very soon, parked on the path's side and near the trees.

Arriving to the top promenade took him less than 10 minutes and there he found her. Ruby was sitting on the ground with her back to him, legs crossed, looking at her laptop screen and tapping frantically on the keyboard.

The strong wind ruffled the lapels of his jacket and Seventeen tightened his hat straps. Ruby had his long hair combed in a braid on a side of her head, and constantly combed some rebel locks behind her ears.

She didn't seem aware of his presence; Ruby was intently staring at her laptop screen without listening to his steps, and as he got closer he realized the reason: she had headphones on and moved her fingers at the music beat.

There was not going to be a better chance...

Grinning devilishly, Seventeen covered his face with his bandana just like a robber and kneeled behind her. He quickly removed her one of her headphones and pressed a finger on her back as if it were a gun.

She screamed and opened her eyes wide, and Seventeen's voice whispered on her ear.

"If you turn around, I shoot. I'll do it as well if you scream again. So give me the quad's keys and that laptop of yours."

It was impossible not to recognize the sound of his velvet voice.

Ruby frowned angrily and turned around. There he was, looking at her with his icy blue eyes curved in an amused eye smile. She reached for his bandana and took it of from his face in a quick gesture.

As she had thought, Seventeen was grinning from ear to ear. She couldn't stand him.

"Could you, PLEASE, greet people in a more normal way? Don't play around like that! Frightening someone is not funny at all!"

"I disagree," he said. Seventeen stood up still smiling broadly.

"You are such a brat!" she exploded.

"And what about you? A careless girl who isolates herself from the forest's sounds in a habitat full of hungry bears. You could consider my joke as a free lesson of survival."

She blinked in surprise. He had a point there, if it had been a wild animal and not Seventeen who had attacked her, it could had cost her dearly.

"Don't you have a gun?" he asked and Ruby shook her head.

"No, I don't like guns. And besides, I am a scientist, what could be the point of shooting a creature I am supposed to study and protect?"

"The point is to live or die. If you don't want to use it against an animal, you could at least get a blank gun. Bears get normally frightened of the gunshots," he explained, and then walked to the edge of the cliff and stood there, taking a look to the forest from there.

She dropped her head. Seventeen was totally right, she should take seriously the whole thing and think about getting herself a blank gun, it could save her life one day.

"I see…" Seventeen whispered, using his binoculars to peer beyond the forest. He had seen some half faded smoke ascending from a place one hundred meters far from the Wicode's bird observation watchtower. "Not bad for a rookie Zoolowimp at all. Maybe I could bring you with me someday, this way you could learn one or two useful things…" he murmured while looking for the campfire. She narrowed her eyes and furiously clenched her fists. He seemed incapable of stopping making fun of her. "Yeah, there are several people armed with assault rifles. They could be robbers or smugglers, maybe; they kind of like the forest privacity to do their business.

Finally! A little bit of fun after an almost endless inactivity period.

"Would you like to help me, Zoolowimp?"

She rolled her eyes.

"My name's Ruby. And if I helped you it would be for the Rangers, not you."

"Cool. Then be a good girl and for the Rangers sake keep an eye on that campfire. If they start to move tell me through the walkie. I'll go to the car to get mine," he said. He handed her his binoculars and headed to the narrow path.

"What are you going to do?" she worriedly asked.

"I'm gonna hunt them out," he said, and a devious grin flashed across his face.

"What?!" she shouted, startled. She chased after him and grabbed his arm before he could reach the forest path. Seventeen turned around and gave her a glare. "But, wouldn't it be better to call the Headquarters for reinforcements?" she suggested, and he snorted in response.

"I ain't going to spoil the fun, Zoolowimp," he said, and his smile faded away before finish talking. "Don't you dare call them."

And that said, he disappeared through the path.

Ruby bit her lip. What should she do? Should she cooperate in that madness of a plan? Was that the way the Rangers worked in that Park?

She walked to the edge of the cliff, carrying Seventeen's binoculars in one hand and her own walkie in the other, and she stood there. Ruby used the binoculars to peer the smoke's origin and saw that those people were really armed.

"Oh my…" she moaned. What if they shot him down?

She swallowed hard. A gust of wind ruffled her braid, suddenly startling her, and she cautiously took a couple of steps backwards.

" _This is Seventeen. Same as before?"_

Ruby sighed. For the time being she has no choice but do what he wanted her to, at least that way she could keep in touch with him and know if things went right or not; and at the very moment she feared for Seventeen's safeness, she would call the Headquarters.

"Yes. They didn't move at all."

" _Ok. Keep an eye on them, Zoolowimp_ "

She could sense that damn smile of his even through the walkie-talkie.

"Ok… But be safe, please," she said.

Ruby used again the binoculars. She could now see four men through a gap between the treetops. Her hands began to sweat.

"Oh my Gosh, Seventeen…" she mumbled again. Ruby clicked her tongue and glanced at her walkie, hesitating about what to do. Should she try to stop him or not?

Oh, come on! She should trust him a little bit for her own sake, at least. If she did, their work relationship would be easier to bear, cause she should probably work with him more often than she wanted.

And besides, everyone who had told her about him until then had described Seventeen as an efficient hard-worker smart boy… He was, by far, the best ranger of the department

Maybe under that childish behaviour of his was hiding that perfect ranger everyone talked about. But even so, 'I'm gonna hunt them out' was what he had said before. And she hadn't liked his tone one bit. Ruby had a really bad feeling about this "hunting thing".

" _This is Seventeen. Any changes?"_

She jumped at the raspy voice from her walkie, and hurried to answer.

"No… Wait! They are putting out the fire! Maybe they are thinking about a change of place…"

" _They won't have enough time."_

"What?"

" _I'm about to catch them. Clear"_

And then, the only sound she heard from the other side of the line was electric noise.

"Seventeen?" she called him. There was no acoustic signal of communication nor the red led was even on. That could mean only one thing: Seventeen had turned off his walkie. "Oh no!" she screamed.

Now he was somewhere down there, about to confront a full armed group which clearly outnumbered him.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

All that thing about asking her for help had been only a trick. Of course, he didn't need any help at all; those men were doomed from the very moment Seventeen saw them, and any weapon they had was useless against him. But she wouldn't cause any problem to him if she only watched the situation from that cliff without interfering. It was a simple way to have her under control and protect the fun.

It had been a long time since he last felt so excited. He run through the hidden paths that led to the campfire place, moving fastly and silently. The color of his jacket did a great camouflage work in the forest, and he had sling his rifle over his back to get it out of his way.

Seventeen was almost there. He could already hear them carelessly chatting, they seemed relaxed and confident that they would not be chased there.

That careless girl had been somehow useful, after all; if it hadn't been for her, Seventeen would be hiding among the lake shore bushes right in that moment, waiting any poacher arrival instead of chasing those bastards, and having no fun at all.

His work day had changed completely thanks to her, and now, as he already had told her, his plan was hunt them, literally.

He would assault them, chase them like a predator to his prey. Now his murderer instincts had awakened again, and for him it was like playing a kinda grim children's game.

He stayed silently hidden in the shadows and locate all of them easily. There was five men. One of them was near the campfire. Two were smoking beside some trees. Another one was very close from his own hideout, and he couldn't see the last one of them but by the distance sound of his voice he guessed that he wasn't far from the two smokers.

There were some sealed packages near the campfire and the five men were armed with assault rifles. And that sight made him smile.

Unable to wait any longer, Seventeen suddenly emerged from the shadows and attacked who was closer, breaking his arm with a single kick.

The man near the campfire shot him but the bullets ricocheted on Seventeen who burst into an evil laughter, and finally, the one laying in the ground with his arm broken died in the shooting

The shooter ran out of bullets, and the android appeared in front of him and punched him so hard the man flew among the forest. There was no way someone could stay conscious after a punch like that.

But a new shooting started. The bullets felt like mosquito bites. Seventeen looked to the left and saw the two smokers shooting him. He flew into them and twisted the rifles barrels upwards. The two men looked horrified at each other and before they could flee Seventeen kicked their legs and threw them to the floor. The sound of broken bones was like music to his ears.

Everything was in peace then, without taking into account the two whining men laying on the ground, and in the middle of that silence it was easy to hear some fast breathing just behind him. Seventeen turned away and saw the last of them aiming at him with his rifle with shaking hands. And he grinned devilishly.

Only one look to that smile was enough for the guy to throw the rifle and raise his hands. He knew there was nothing he could do against this being in front of him. And then, Seventeen walked towards him and reached for his own rifle, slung over his back.

"I'm thinking about giving you a little head-start, ¿what do you think?" said the android, in a flat voice.

"W-what? I've surrendered! I ain't armed anymore!" the guy said, startled.

"Yeah, and that's perfect for a better flight: less weight."

The man took a few more steps back, horrified.

"Are you crazy?"

"Who knows, maybe," Seventeen casually answered. "But that'd not be a big deal. Now, run!"

The guy began to walk backwards, unable to believe his ears. And when the android loaded his rifle, he finally understood the ranger's intentions were true and started to run through the trees.

With one knee on the ground, Seventeen aimed at him though the rifle scope.

His prey run frantically, trying not to be an easy target for that mad man. But the android grinned and moved his finger slightly over the trigger. He was able to hit a weasel eighty meters away; he knew it well, he had already done that.

But the guy suddenly disappeared from his visual field, and Seventeen lowered his rifle, puzzled.

"How weird…" he murmured.

He stood up and walked towards the place that man had vanished, with his rifle slung over his shoulder. He found him, whimpering painfully in the bottom of a deep trench dug by poachers to catch live animals, and so deep it was he had probably broken his leg in the falling.

"Damn poachers…" Seventeen mumbled. He was really pissed off; those bastards had ruined the best part of the hunting. "How many people are you?" he asked.

The guy looked at him with his back pressed against the rock wall and his hands covering his sore knee. Afraid as he was, he stared at Seventeen and mumbled, "Only the five of us, you fucking moron! And Ladik is dead!

Seventeen smiled as if remembering something funny.

"Yeah! So sad, isn't it? Murdered by his own friends."

"You used him as a human shield!"

"You know, I guess you lost your reason when you came a cropper," the android whispered. "I think you should pay more attention to events…"

"Bastard! You are crazy as fuck!" the man shouted. "You are in for it now! They'll lock you up in a loony bin!"

"You are in no position to threaten me. From here you are only a good target…" Seventeen said in a raspy voice.

And he aimed to the man's head who curled up inside the hole, whimpering.

Seventeen moved his finger over the trigger. That would be the first time he shot with that weapon so close to the target. The skull blast would be a superb show he was dying to see.

But the sudden sound of an approaching car made him lower the rifle. Between the trees he saw one of the huge off-road cars of the Rangers Department stopping by the campfire, and some of his workmates jumped out of it.

Seventeen was still glaring at the man inside the trap when the rangers surrounded him.

"Are you ok, Seventeen?" Jimmy asked.

"It can't be…" he whispered, looking around.

"Guys, there is a stash of cocaine!" someone shouted from near the campfire.

"Tell that psycho there this is not the end!" the smuggler mumbled.

"Of course not…" Seventeen whispered. Let them to snatch his prey from him was not his will, actually. And he aimed to the man in the hole again.

"What the hell are you doing, boy?" Flynn said, grabbing the android's rifle. "Do you really want to get into trouble?"

"Take your hands off that," Seventeen hissed.

Flynn hesitated. Never ever had he seen such expression on his workmate's face.

"Enough, Seventeen!"

That was the Chief's voice. The android looked at him out of the corner of his eye. He looked at every one of them.

He was about to kill a man and he also wanted to kill them all.

They were annoying. That bunch of spoilsports were blocking him, ruining his funny hunting game.

"You did a good job, Seventeen," the Chief praised him, trying to bring him back to his senses. "But the lass was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when she called the Headquarters. You shouldn't make her suffer like that, boy! Next time call us yourself."

"The lass?" Seventeen asked.

And Jimmy confirmed his suspicions.

"Ruby called us for reinforcements," he said. "It was lucky this place is not far from the office."

Seventeen took a deep breath and secured his rifle before slinging it over his back.

"Yeah, lucky..."

* * *

 **...**

* * *

Ruby was in the shelter waiting for news about the shooting he had heard in the forest as the Chief had instructed her when she called the office a while ago.

She shouldn't leave the place until the danger was over. But meanwhile she had no way of knowing what happened to Seventeen.

Back in the cliff, Ruby was about to obey him and not to call the rangers. But when she heard the shooting in the forest she didn't have any other choice, she was too scared.

What if he was hurt? What if… he was dead?

She shook her head and took a deep breath trying to calm down. No, she must believe in him, she shouldn't have such negative thoughts.

Ruby sit in the little concrete stair of the shelter, head resting on her fists.

"Why did you turn off the walkie?" she mumbled, self talking.

And then Ruby heard a car on the track to the shelter and recognised its engine's sound.

She smiled relieved and stood up, when finally saw the dark blue off-road car appearing in the road.

He was safe! Seventeen was safe!

Ruby forgot all about the last fights she'd had with him and suddenly felt like embracing him.

Seventeen's car stopped by the shelter, he jumped out of the car and didn't even think about closing the door. He walked briskly towards the little building with his face filled with anger.

Fear took place of Ruby's relief when she saw that, and she walked backwards clumsily climbing the stairs trying to hide herself inside the shelter. But he was faster and cornered her against the wall.

"I think I did tell you NOT to call the Headquarters, didn't I?" he asked in a low voice, glaring at her.

"I h-heard some shooting in the forest and… I c-couldn't see you," she stuttered. "And you turned off your walkie so… What else could I do besides calling them? I was worried about you!"

"Listen to me!" his growl startled her. Seventeen grabbed her by her collar and stared daggers at her. "From now on just stay away from my business."

"Your business? What are you talking about, Seventeen?" she frowned. "Is hunting people down a business of yours ? Nobody's life is a business thing nor it is a game!"

Enough.

Seventeen clenched the fist that grabbed her jacket and he pressed her throat. He placed his other hand just in front of her face; he was about to blast her to pieces.

But finally he didn't do it. Her gaze was which stopped him.

She was afraid, it was obvious. But there was something strange in her dark eyes and Ruby was looking back at him without hesitation.

Only a terrified mosquito she was, and even so she was able to hold his stare. Anyone in her place would be curled up in the floor, begging for her life. But not her. She had a strength he had never seen before in anyone.

And Seventeen lowered his hand.

"Seventeen… You are hurting me…"

She was on the verge of tears and the words died in his throat.

But Seventeen freed her quickly and turned on his heels. It would be better to be off before doing something regretful.

How dare she to question his actions? Who did she think she was?

Seventeen arrived to his car, got into it and started it immediately. And when he closed the door, Ruby fell down and started to cry, overwhelmed by her own fear.

"Yeah! Get lost!" she yelled and wiped her tears away. "I'm not going to count on you anymore! Did you hear me? Forget about me!"

 **..::::..**

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_

 _I know this story has been rated as "romance", but the main character is Android 17. Too sweetness is not his style in my understanding. He is bitter and cocky, and most of all in this period of his life, when he is still lost._

 _In the end he is a cyborg programmed to kill. A being with no fear of stealing a life. Everything is a game for him, and he loves to play. But as we could see in Dragon Ball Super he somehow left the violence. And if we think about it, although he is a murderer he didn't kill anyone besides Dr. Gero. He could have been a dangerous being like future Android 17, but he wasn't. He is childish and sadist, but he didn't kill._

 _But even so, I think if he gets bored maybe the situation could be a little different._

 _That's my vision of him, a lost and rebel boy, very different from the one of the future. And I think it should be something out there that pressed his reset button when he needed, something or someone capable of keep his sanity as a human._

 _In this version of Seventeen's life, that someone is Ruby. And in that chapter, she just have pressed his reset button for the first time, and it won't be the last._

 _Thank you so much for reading!_

* * *

 _Dragon Ball_ © Akira Toriyama


	7. Compassion

_"Dawn is always a hope for the men."_

 **"Seventeen"**

Chapter VII: Compassion

* * *

 **..::::..**

He was sitting on his heels near the rapids of the river. The sound of a pair of shrieking elks was perfectly audible from there.

The mating season was in full swing but the last days had been quiet and Seventeen hadn't catch any poacher recently. It was a success and a failure at the same time: a success for the Rangers Department, because Wicode had registered the fewer animal death toll of the last two years. But it was a failure for Seventeen himself because that meant more and more boredom.

And in addition of that meaning there was no bumping into poachers and no finding animal corpses therefore there was no information to give to her.

Seventeen had been avoiding any contact with Ruby for the last weeks, he didn't even drive near the Observatory.

He could not forgive the way she put an end to his smuggler hunting. She oawknly did have to obey his orders. It wasn't a difficult task at all, that he thought.

Seventeen protected his eyes from the midday sunlight with his hat. He could recognise that kind of flash: it was the one previous to a storm; the sun rays shone through the clouds as making them explode.

When he stood up once checked the area's safety, a male elk saw him from the lake shore.

Male elks are very territorial, especially during mating season, and that elk faced Seventeen without any trace of fear.

The android remained impassive when the animal approached him head lowered in a clearly offensive gesture. But when the elk was just in front of him, only a single icy stare from him was enough to make the poor thing change its intentions. Finally, the animal turned around and leave the place in a fast trot.

It was that easy, every living being always reacted wisely to Seventeen's warning gazes. It'd always been like that as long as he could remember: his eyes had the power to make anybody to bow before him. Nobody had the guts to hold his gaze.

But she did, and Seventeen couldn't forget the weirdness of the moment she dared to call his way of doing things into question while her dark eyes looked back at him without any trace of hesitation.

He really didn't know if she was a brave girl or simply a suicidal one.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

Two weeks after her fight with Seventeen, Ruby was riding the main road of the Royal Nature Park to the rangers Headquarters.

The power unit of her shelter was almost empty of fuel and she had had an idea: she would buy a 10 liter fuel can and would join it to a grid on the back of her quad, this way she could go to the petrol station and fill it by herself. She should probably do it twice a week, but she prefered that rather than depending on Seventeen to fill the big can.

That day she needed other things as well: some food, a gas cylinder and a matchbox. Ruby needed to stockpile some stuff because the weather forecast warned of huge spring storms for the next four days starting that night, and she didn't want to become isolated without food nor electricity. She had estimated that she would have enough fuel for a week with the content of a small can and what was left in the 40 liter one.

After her last fatidic encounter with the "lake weirdo", Ruby had started to getting used to live in the wild, which meant a big effort for a city folk like her. She couldn't make any mistake nor forget any detail to guarantee her survival because then she would have to depend on HIM.

And she didn't want to have anything to do with HIM.

It was midday already when she finally arrived to the rangers headquarters. She stopped her quad in front of Yunpei's Tavern and took off the helmet the same time the owner greeted her wavering his hand from the door.

"Ruby! It took you so long!" he shouted. Ruby smiled at him and returned the greeting. "C'mere and take a coffee, lass!"

"I'm sorry, Yunpei, I can't right now!" She apologized and bowed from the distance.

"Hey! Where did you left your Casanova?" he asked.

Ruby rolled her eyes and huffed while putting off her gloves, then put them inside the helmet and hung it from the handlebar.

"I don't know and I don't want to know it!" she answered, grumpy.

Yunpei scratched his head and whistle, surprised.

"Oh my… How short it lasted," he murmured. Then he shrugged and went back to the tavern.

There were only the Chief, Jimmy, Flynn and the radio operator in the office the moment Ruby opened the door, and everybody stood up from their seats when they saw her.

"Ruby! What brings you here today?" the Chief asked.

She smiled, unzipped her jacket and took a paper out of an inside pocket where she had written everything she needed.

"I've come for provisions!" she said cheerfully.

"Well done! That storm is going to hit hard on the forest and sooner than expected, I fear. The more things you have in the shelter, the better. But don't hesitate to contact Seventeen if you have any problem and-"

"Don't worry, Chief! I have everything under control! I only need a small fuel can and some more food and I'll be ready," she said while reading her list.

The Chief raised his brows. The way Ruby had cut him the very moment he had said 'Seventeen' was too suspicious. Something had happened between those two…

He approached her. Ruby was quietly checking her list and only looked at him when the Chief put a hand on her shoulder in a friendly way.

"Hey, you only have to tell me if he is being an asshole. I'll remind him of his duties."

"Ok! Thank you so much!" she said. She quickly turned around and jogged to the door, ready to go to the rangers storeroom and take one of those fuel cans.

"Oh! I almost forget!" the Chief said snapping fingers. He walked back to his desk and grabbed an envelope. "Yesterday arrived this letter. I hope it's not something serious…"

He handed her the envelope. It had the seal of a law firm from West Capital in one corner.

"Oh, that… No, it really is not so important. Don't worry" she assured, smiling.

Ruby run off the building and walked around it until reach a good hide spot near the storeroom. And once alone she opened the envelope and anxiously read through the text. She finally find a sentence in the middle of the letter that made her let out a sigh of relief. And it said: '100.000 zeni of bail'

Ruby leaned on the wall, feeling a great load leaving her mind.

"Thank you Kamisama… He'll never leave the jail," she murmured.

Ruby breathed deeply; those had been really good news to her. And with that in mind she proceeded to take all the stuff she needed from the storeroom.

She found a perfect fuel can, and with Flynn's help she made a holder with a pair of iron bars and welded it to the quad's chassis. A simple but useful luggage rack for the fuel that took a lot more time than expected to finish. But finally, the fuel can remained firmly attached to the back of the seat.

The last thing left to do was filling the can and checking it for fuel loss.

"It is perfect!" she shouted in the end. Now she wouldn't need Seventeen's help anymore.

Ruby cleaned fastly the whole quad and finally went to Yunpei's Tavern, ready to pack some food. The man was already waiting for her already with a just prepared and delicious dish of roast chicken.

Ruby didn't get aware about how late it was and how starving she was, so she finished her meal as fast as she could and began to fill her backpack. There were a lot of things she would need.

"Ah… Ruby, you need help?"

She look up from her list and saw Jimmy waiting shyly for her to answer him, while twisting his hat wing.

"I need to do everything by myself to prove I don't depend on anybody. But, thanks anyway, Jimmy. You are so kind!"

"Oh, cool…" he said timidly. Ruby smiled at him and returned her attention to her list. And then he had another idea. "In that case… Do you mind if I pick you up some saturday night? We could watch some baseball on tv here, in the tavern, or…"

Ruby raised her brows. That would be the most clumsy date in the world, but she was touched by Jimmys good intentions and she giggled.

"I don't know, Jimmy. Maybe someday! Thank you so much!"

But Jimmy was far from looking happy, Rubys's rejection was too obvious.

She closed her backpack, said her goodbyes and left the tavern.

"Jim, c'mere boy. You need some advice about woman…" Yunpei said once the engine of Ruby's quad roared outside.

* * *

 **...**

* * *

The storm arrived when Ruby was yet in her way back home. The rain was heavy and the wind strong and cold. The track became muddy and soft; riding in that conditions was hard and Ruby took an extra hour and a half arriving to the shelter. The quad was heavy and she didn't dare to speed up. The mud soon covered her glasses and her gloves; her pants and jacket were soaked.

It was already night when she finally arrived home shivering with cold like a puppy.

Once inside the shelter Ruby took off his clothes and threw them carelessly on the bathroom floor. Under the shower she tried to warm herself and clean all the mud of her hair.

"S-shit!" She screamed when leaving the bathroom. She had forgotten to turn on the stove and her bedroom was freezing. Her teeth chattered with cold when she put on the first clothes she found besides a thick sweater; but even after the shower the cold didn't leave her and Ruby thought about having a hot meal. A soup would be nice.

She prepared the kitchen to heat up a canned soup she had brought from the tavern, and then...

"Fuck!" Ruby shouted. Where was the matchbox? She had it ready to put it inside her backpack, back in the tavern! It was the most important thing! More than the tomatoes Yunpei had insisted so much that Ruby took! "Stupid tomatoes," she murmured, angrily.

 _And now what?_ she thought. And like it was an answer Ruby started to sneeze. Things didn't look good at all.

It was then when she looked to the abandoned walkie talkie over a shelf.

"No way!" she mumbled.

She wasn't going to ask him for matches! Firstly, that idiot would laugh at her and then he'd tell her to fuck off; if she was him she'd do it.

Ruby frowned, she was starting to get sore throat and it wasn't going to stop raining for at least the next four days. Getting ill and not being able to eat anything hot was a bad thought.

There was no more choice. And angry, Ruby grabbed her raincoat and put it on, cursing her bad luck.

Obviously, she preferred to deal with him for some minutes rather than to watch herself getting even worse. But she wasn't going to ask him for help, she would go only to get the matches to the firebreak hut. There should be some, right?

She carefully put her long and still wet hair under the collar of her raincoat, put on her helmet, protective glasses and gloves and started the quad.

Fortunately, the track that lead to the hut was wide and not too muddy, but it didn't stop raining so she was soaked again when she finally arrived in front of the wooden porch of Seventeen's hut.

Seventeen was in the porch, laying in an old rocking chair, legs crossed and feet up the wooden railing. His face was covered by his cowboy hat. It was like the bad weather had nothing to do with him…

She climbed the old wooden steps, took off her helmet, glasses and gloves and stared blankly at him.

Seventeen lifted his hat's brim with only one finger and looked at her one brow raised.

"Going for a ride? Nice weather, mnh?"

 _Son of a bitch!_ She thought, and a wide assortment of tortures and punishments filled her mind. In fact, Ruby resisted the urge of punching him on the nose when Seventeen smiled crookedly at her.

Throughout her life, Ruby had had the bad luck of knowing a lot of motherfuckers, but seemed like Seventeen was the worst of them all.

Ok, that wasn't completely true, there was an even worse motherfucker than him…

She stared back at Seventeen with narrowed eyes, looking that expression of him she could not stand: his impassive icy blue eyes watching her, judging her.

She hated his look. She hated that mean smile of him... That damn sexy smile of him.

"Oh my God…" she mumbled. Ruby rolled her eyes and walked into the house without permission. She couldn't believe what she had just thought! She should be starting to had a fever.

Ruby's eyes took a little time to get used to the room's darkness. Why he didn't turn at least a light on?

A room on her right was the first to catch her attention and from the place where she was standing she could see some kitchen furniture. _Perfect_ , she thought. In the kitchen must surely be matches, she'd grab some and leave the place.

With that in mind Ruby got into the kitchen.

"It could be faster if you'd tell me what exactly are you looking for," he said softly. He had stood up from his rocking chair and had silently followed her inside the hut.

"I only want some matches…" she mumbled. The sooner she found them, the sooner she could go back to the warmth of her little shelter.

Ruby started rummaging through the kitchen cupboards, but she couldn't find any matchbox nor a lighter.

There were no matches, no food, no water. All the cupboards were empty.

Ruby turned into stone cold, trying to understand. She opened again the cupboard's door to check that what she had just seen were not visions, and slowly closed it.

Seventeen's dark silhouette was blocking the doorway when she looked that way.

"You won't find anything here," he said. His words were soft and she didn't reply; she couldn't find the proper sentence.

What was going on? It was like nobody lived actually there.

Ruby left the kitchen and peered the room she hadn't looked at before because of the darkness. Now she could see a sofa and a simple chair, but there wasn't more furniture, not even a little table for having meals.

She looked in his eyes for an explanation, maybe some sign to think everything was ok and all of that was another joke of his.

But he stared back at her like always: showing the same emotionless expression and the same grim smile.

"Do you want a matchbox? Let's see..." he said softly.

Seventeen crossed the room and stopped in front of a fireplace in a corner, the only place that seemed used commonly. All Seventeen's firearms were in a neat rack on the wall, near the fireplace: the rifle, a shotgun, some handguns, and ammunition. And under that metal rack there was a pile of dry firewood ready for starting a fire.

He took something from the mantelpiece and handed it to her.

"There. You can keep it if you want, I don't need it at all."

But Ruby only looked at his hand.

"What's happening here? Why is everything so… abandoned like you weren't living here?"

Seventeen took a deep breath and stared intently at her.

"You'd never understand, Zoolowimp," he assured. "I'll give you some good advice: stay away from me."

"Why?" she insisted. "Who are you, Seventeen?"

"That question is wrongly formulated," he mockingly said. The android walked towards Ruby and leaned before her until their eyes were at the same height. She could see the light blue shining even in the darkness. "Also, I think I remember you shouted at me you didn't want to see me again. So stay away from me. Get out of my face."

Seventeen threw the matchbox to her and returned to the porch.

Ruby stared at the little box in her hands and squeezed it. Then she turned around and followed his steps. He was already lying on his beloved rocking chair, hands behind head and face hidden under his hat. Seventeen's attitude was so careless that Ruby's clenched fists shook with rage.

"My name's Ruby," she said in a less friendly voice. "And… I won't go away!"

Seventeen lifted his hat and looked at her, surprised .

"Pardon?" he said calmly.

"I'm not going to stay away from you!" she declared. "I know you don't care about it, but your troubles do are my business whether or not you like me, because we'll have no choice but to work together eventually. And if my safety is going to depend on you then I insist on knowing who you are!"

After bursting with anger Ruby stayed still, being only able to hear her own heartbeat.

He smiled again. Wow, she'd really got guts! It was the first time in his life someone dared to stand up to him.

"I told you, that question is wrongly formulated," he repeated. Seventeen stared at her for a moment before standing up from his seat. He slowly walked towards her, and Ruby felt more and more tiny with the sound of every step he took. "Is it really so important to you to know WHAT I am?" he asked, remarking the key word and standing only 2 feet away from her.

She swallowed hard and nodded. It was too late to call this off...

"Well, if you insist" he said softly. "Watch carefully."

Seventeen took a folding knife out of his pocket, he opened it and stabbed himself in the stomach. She stifle her cries with her own hands and the matchbox she was holding fell to the ground.

Seventeen looked intently to her reaction. He smiled and showed her the blade of the knife: it was bent.

She frowned unable to understand and Seventeen lifted his clothes to show her the wound. But there wasn't any wound nor a single sign that he had just stabbed himself.

Seventeen threw the knife on the porch table and the clang made Ruby to jump. Her bottom lip was quivering and her eyes moved fast from Seventeen's belly to his eyes.

He was smiling as always, he hadn't expected to have so much fun that evening. And now, the final straw: the explanation.

"Some time ago I was like you, but now I'm not a person anymore. I don't even remember my real name. I was kidnapped by a crazy scientist and subjected to an experiment against my will: a desperate attempt to create the perfect killing machine. And, you know what? He did it!" he said, showing his palms to her. "I am an android: Number 17. I am not a complete man and I am not totally a machine either. Are you satisfied now, Zoolowimp?" he asked mockingly. But as he had expected already she had become wordless. "Well," he breathed deeply, "this is the time people usually flee. You can start running away when you want, I won't chase after you, I swear."

He finished his explanation and gestured with his hands like a gentleman, allowing her to freely access to the stairs of the porch.

He was clearly enjoying the way the truth had shocked her. The Zoolowimp always reminded him how funny was to play with people minds, to be a monster for human beings.

But she didn't run away and Seventeen's smile faded slowly; he wasn't ready for Ruby's unexpected reaction.

Big tears rolled over her cheeks when she approached him and lifted his sweater with shaking hands to watch the place where the knife's blade had left a little red line on his skin. And then looked at his eyes.

Seventeen wasn't even able to move.

She touched that spot. His skin was hot and soft, almost silky; it was like any other youngster's skin. She stroked that mark on Seventeen's belly with a finger and she did it with so much care that his muscles contracted involuntarily.

"You can not even feel pain?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"I can't feel," he whispered. "Neither hunger, cold, tiredness…"

He stopped speaking. Why was him telling her all that? He didn't need anybody to understand him, ¿did he?

Ruby rested her forehead on his shoulder and burst into tears. In the middle of that one sided hug he could only see her soaked long dark hair shaking with every sob. Never ever, since Seventeen woke up in Dr. Gero's lab, had he witnessed such a fragility.

And he wasn't smiling anymore, that vision wasn't funny at all.

Everything had finally made sense for Ruby: his weird name, his behavior, his awkward way to socialize, his reactions... His strength... His loneliness. Now she finally understood him but his truth was too hard and sad to bear with.

"How could that damned wretch make you something like that?" she growled angrily against his chest and her fists clenched the edges of his sweater. "It is not fair! I-I knew there must be a reason for you to be so difficult to bear with. But I didn't imagine such a horrible nightmare! I'm sorry, Seventeen! I'm so sorry!

And there he was: an android receiving a human being's compassion, HER compassion, moreover. An unexpected turn of events if he thought about how bastard he had been to her.

But besides compassion, what Ruby was expressing through her words and through her own feelings was the pain Seventeen wasn't able to express, the lament he could not transmit.

Being Android 17 didn't only mean having unlimited power and strength and the ability to have everything he wanted. It also meant the loss of his identity and humanity and an inability to feel.

Being an android was actually a curse he had already learned to live with and which he had struggled to ignore. It was indeed a nightmare... What a proper way to define it! She was really smart, he wouldn't call it any other way from now on.

It was true. It was fucking true… ¿How could that damned wretch do such thing to him?

Seventeen's gaze got lost in the forest while, little by little, Ruby calmed down. And when her crying stopped completely and her breathing returned to normal, Ruby snuggled closer to him.

He opened his eyes wide. That tiny gesture was the closest thing to affection he had received in his whole life and he wasn't ready at all to properly react to it. Yeah, he had a lot of information about consolation in his memory register, but in that moment he couldn't move one bit.

There were happening really weird things to him that evening...

So, there he stayed: still and not knowing what to say to that girl who was hugging him in the rickety porch of his hut.

Unbelievable, Seventeen had just told her a truth worthy of a horror movie script and she had stayed with him instead of fleeing from there. And now she was HUGGING HIM in his fucking rickety porch.

Ruby shivered slightly and Seventeen felt her forehead against his throat. She was boiling. And then he finally understood what was really happening: she wasn't only giving him consolation, she was actually looking for warmth. Ruby was freezing to death.

He leaned to her ear and whispered, "I think going for a ride under the rain wasn't the best idea, Zoolowimp."

"My name's Ruby…" She moaned, her arms becoming weaker and weaker.

She was exhausted and sick. The long ride under the rain from the Headquarters to the shelter with so much extra weight on her quad had greatly weakened her, but Seventeen's confession had meant a hard shock.

"Whatever…" he whispered.

And his arms trapped her just before her knees touched the floor.

 **..::::..**

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_

 _First of all, sorry for the waiting! It was a long chapter and with a lot of difficult ideas and expressions, and Spanish differs a lot from English especially when it comes to talking about feelings._

 _As it has been recently revealed, Seventeen and Eighteen had been kidnapped and transformed into androids against their will. And although they seem to be proud of their power and are apparently unable to express any feeling because of their android condition, I think that the very first human feeling they have is the rejection of his new condition, perhaps generated by the remains of the humanity they believe Gero snatched them._

 _Seventeen is completely aware of his hatred towards dr. Gero so he killed him. But when Ruby put that hatred into words and he listen to them, he realize there are a lot of things he believe he can't do, and that will mean some kind of a turning point in his life._

 _By the way, Ruby had just pressed Seventeen's reset button again!_

 _Thank you for reading!_

* * *

 _Dragon Ball_ © Akira Toriyama


End file.
